Schools ratings not encouraging for city students

Published 7:00 pm, Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Norwalk's public schools are all over the lot when it comes to ranking their standing for success, according to yet another survey.

This one comes from ConnCAN, an educational advocacy group, using scores from standardized tests from a year ago.

We make no apologies for the Norwalk school system, other than to say it deals with a most diverse population in background and economic status. According to the survey, some schools were outstanding, while others got low and even failing grades.

The survey of 1,000 schools throughout the state made judgments based on overall performance, improve-ments from year-to-year and the achievement gap between low income and minority students and their peers.

On the bright side, a number of Norwalk elementary schools ranked among the top-10 for their minority students' achievements. Brookside, Marvin, Fox Run, Rowayton, and Kendall rank high in this category.

Kendall, given a "B" for its achievement gap has the highest number of minority and low-income students of any grade school in the school district.

Of greater concern, if you accept ConnCAN's ratings, are the grades given the high schools, which received a D in overall performance and an F based on achievement gap data. That means the minority students fell behind their peers by at least 31 percentage points.

The middle schools scored better than the high schools, with the elementary schools leading the way.

Again, it's another survey by a private group with an agenda -- a legitimate one to be sure, but it is out to prove a point. And the basis for the rankings, the standardized tests, are subject to interpretation.

ConnCAN's assessment of the future of education in this state is a grim one.

"Today's Connecticut is a state where the children most dependent on our public schools all too often get the least effective education.

It's a state with the largest achievement gap in the country, where our students' math skills are on par with the developing world. It's a punitive state, where we spend more on jails than higher education.

It's a state whose economic future is in peril" is the way the organization sees the challenge.

That's pretty drastic, but perhaps that is what is needed to galvanize the public, lawmakers and educators to meet that challenge.